Dear Dr Liqaa and all other respected colleagues

Honestly, whenever I want to tell the number of inherent challenges , explaining my pain feeling or want to describe my inner feeling,such as emotional feelings I find it very difficult , but in academic papers no!

I am a Japanese but often express my idea in English. When the idea is about scientific research of my specialty, I seldom face difficulty in expressing it in English. However, I sometimes write blog articles about my life in English. On such occasions, I often feel difficulty in expressing my thought or experience in English. In such cases, I get a help from "Google Translate" to convert my Japanese sentences into English and rewrite the result in my own English.

From the viewpoint of the general public who are native speakers of English, this would be a strange matter; I write in English easily those things difficult for them but cannot write easily those things easy for them.

Everybody need to practice foreign language to communicate and write. It is easy if we use mother tongue 

In case of expressing my specialty of knowledge, the situation is very easy, BUT when talking about other social and literature it becomes very difficult as a NON native English speaker.

Regards, Emad 

Dear Dibaker Pal 

Thank you so much for sharing your valuable experience. I appreciate your courage in answering the editor and you are absolutely right that it is a matter of content. 

Liqaa 

Dear Tatsuo Tabata and Emad Kamil Hussein 

This may happen because the large amount of specialized material that we received in studying.  Other types of personal writing need direct interaction with native speakers as in travel or study as I think  .

Thank you so much for sharing your valuable experience.

Liqaa 

Thank you so much for your answer dear Anirbid Sircar. 

Liqaa 

ليقا حابيب المحترمة 

يرتبط سؤالك ارتباطا وثيقا باللغة .. واعني بمدى امتلاك الفرد للمفردات اللغوية وخزينه المعرفي الكمي فيها 

وقدرته على توظيف هذه المفردات وطبيعة صوغها في جمل دقيقة معبرة بصدق عن فحوى الفكرة 

وكلما زاد تمكن الفرد من لغته وامتلك القدرة على توظيفها زادت قدرته على الترجمة الدقيقة للنصوص والتعبير عن افكارها بصورة سليمة واقرب الى مايبتغيه صاحب النص 

مع التحايا 

مازن 

Informative answer dear Dr. Mazin Alsalman.  I appreciate your valuable opinion.

Thank you so much. 

Liqaa 

أجابة معبرة عزيزي الدكتور مازن السلمان . اقدر كثيرا رأي حضرتك.

شكرا. جزيلاً..

Dear Liqaa,

I think you posted a very interesting question.

In my opinion, every person who learns another language, English in this case, is always worried and concerned about his or her difficulties in translating his or her ideas in the new language learned. Though we may have a  B2 or C1 level according to the CEFR, there is always a concern about how well or bad we express what we think in our mother tongue.

That is why we must be intercultural speakers, that is to communicate as independent users, with a determined level of correction and fluency which allows us to interact with peoples from different cultures with equal respect, understanding and openness and whose language competence level is not measured by how close it is to the native speaker model but to the quality and efficiency of the interaction with the foreigners of different cultures.

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Litart

Outstanding answer dear Dr. Litart Litarature. I highly appreciate your rich answer . Thank you so much . 

Liqaa 

Dear Dr. Liqaa 

I think that people who specialize in social and human sciences face more difficulties than others. The reason may be because their studies require a lot of theoretical justification and persuasion. 

Yes. Especially when I conduct studies in local communities where the native language (elective) is spoken there and I need to transcribe exactly the words of informants in the English language especially in phenomenological studies where the analysis of findings is lavishly illustrated using the words of informants.

Thanks

Dickson Adom

Dear Dr. Amer 

Social sciences researchers usually don't need to write in English cause mostly their studies tackled in Arabic or any other native language. I think this problem related to all specializations simply because we are all foreigners.  

Thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Dear Dickinson Adom 

I agree with you totally the problem sometimes stems from the difference between formal and the colloquial forms of language. 

Thank you so much for your enriching answer. 

Liqaa 

In social sciences, any researcher wants to publish his or her research in journals that have impact factor it requires to write in English.

Yes , it might be.  Thank you dear Dr. Amer for your answer. 

Liqaa 

I do. In fact, I find writing in any language an extremely arduous task.

Dear Liqaa,

Absolutely, it is difficult   to translate culture-bound terms into other languages

In fact we all do . Thank you so much for sharing your opinion dear Dr.Ramkrishna Bhattacharya. 

Liqaa 

Yes as our thought process pattern is language specific based on grammer , phonetics, cultural values.

Thank you so much for sharing your opinion dear Bhupesh Singh Dhundele. 

Liqaa 

Certainly, I can not writing fluently about what is going on in my mind, and I am restricted in many times in choosing the words or phrases appropriate to express exactly about what I wanted

Hi dear Dr. Liqaa,

Personally, I don't find that difficulty in translation because Iam used to deal English for years and got my bachelor, MA, and PhD in English language and linguistics. But sometimes I consult the dictionary if I am asked to translate a piece of paper in Physics or chemistry ,etc,because these sciences have their own terminologies as you know.

Regards

Yes, I think we all do. When the idea is about scientific research of my specialty, I do not have problem.

Best Regards,

Dear Ahmed Al mayahi 

You are utterly right. Thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

I agree with you dear Dr.Arwa.  It just a matter for scientific translation that need to be checked in a dictionary or to ask a specialist. Thank you so much dear .

Liqaa 

You are right dear Zijad Dzafic. We all do to a different extent. 

Thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Yes, in case, if it is not one's native language.

However, if one wants, one can learn English very fast and can become proficient.

Thank you so much for your valuable answer dear Subhash C. Kundu .

I appreciate it. 

Liqaa 

Yes. I am more comfortable in my mother tongue

Dear Chalamala Srinivas 

Thank you so much for sharing these valuable articles. 

Liqaa 

No doubt dear Anirbid Sircar. To express your ideas in your mother tongue is more easier than any other language. Thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Hi 

I agree with most of the comments and I wish you can check the following link:

http://translationjournal.net/October-2015/difficulties-of-literary-translation.html

Thanks a lot dear Dr Khansaa for sharing this valuable link. I appreciate it. 

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa,

I was once the victim of being a native speaker. My country has 4 national languages and mine a.k.a Malay used to be the only one decades ago.

Entrapped within my environment, it was difficult to speak English even though I am very comfortable with written English. This continued until I was at my college level - a place where we were the minority students and I need to speak more than writing. In a space of 3 months - my speaking improves till today. Imagine the power of nurture !

While nature fails me biologically and natively, the environment and situation nurtured me into being a great speaker that I became one of those elite trainer of trainers in the military school I once went to.

It is never shameful to translate from native language to international language, the difficulties are minor and easily overcome - personally.

Best regards.

Mariam

...........No, I don’t mean I think in those languages and write in English. If you do, then you cannot write in English. .............A.K Ramanujan 

http://www.sdmcujire.in/userfiles/MRP/Shashikanth_kurudi.pdf

Dear Mariam 

It is my honour to read your personal experience. You utterly right that the force of interaction and communication can be able to create good speakers of language though they spend many years without real benefit. Thank you so much dear for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Unless foreign language is fully know to me i may not prefer to translate my thinking,my ideas ,into the same as there is every possibilities of your thinking may get misrepresented & may not give justice to our idea .

This is my personal opinion 

Dear Krishnan Umachandran 

You mean that we can not think in our native language then translate these ideas into the target language.  We have to think in the target language then transfer these ideas into a language. If is so , I agree with you totally. Thank you so much for your answer and for sharing this valuable link. 

Liqaa 

 Dear Rohit M Parikh 

I agree with you totally that we supposed to acquire the two languages fully then begin to translate our ideas. Thank you so much for your enriching answer. 

Liqaa 

Interesting question and answers . 

Dear Liqaa,

I usualy avoid translating my ideas from one language into another, even if the target language is my first language. I find it extremely difficult and time-consuming because it requires total change of focus. I prefer to construct the idea anew instead of providing a lame and inefficient translation.That said,  I am a professional translatr and find no difficulty in transating others' ideas, especially if I consciously adopt the "translation mindset".

 Dear Diana Balasanyan 

It is an amazing ability if you could construct your ideas in the target language. What I misunderstand here is your comment " even if the target language is my first language " . Can you clarify this point please. 

Thank you so much for sharing your valuable opinion. 

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa,

I was brought up with two languages, Armenian and Russian, as my first languages, which means I am bilingual. By "target language" I mean the language into which I need to translate something: if I need to translate a text from English into Russian, then English would be the source language, and Russian would be the target language. What I wanted to say was that it is difficult for me to translate my ideas even if I am translating from English to Armenian, which is my native (first) language , or from Armenian into Russian, which are both my first languages. Each language has an internal logic and a set of rhetorical constructions which do not coincide with other languages, and even if I am very proficient in a language, I prefer to construct the idea in the target language rather than take the words and phrases and find their equivalents in the language of translation. I hope this clarified my  idea

Thanks for the interesting discussion.

Dear Diana 

Thank you so much for your enriching answer. Sometimes the difficulty stems from the differences in cultures or life style between the two languages.  I utterly agree with you that we have to think in the target language first then write them. Thank you so much for clarification. 

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa,

My native language is Minangese or Minangkabau language, one of 700 local languages in Indonesia. I speak Indonesian language everyday. I feel difficulties in translating my ideas in English, for example, if I think and translate my ideas in my mind before delivering it. I dont feel the same difficulties if I speak about my ideas directly without translating them first into English.

Best regards,

Azhari Darnis

Dear colleague Azhari Darnis 

It is really complex to be among 700 local language and It is difficult to translate your ideas as you state simply because we are foreigners even sometimes ,some of us ,being native like speakers . Thank you so much for sharing your interesting experience. 

Liqaa 

Thank you so much for your answer dear Dr Khansaa . I appreciate it. 

Liqaa 

Within the same family of languages a computer aided translator is helpful. To check the results  it is best to backward translate it. Idioms and figures of speech are best left out. I have more difficulty speaking to natives of my own first language after a career of simplifying the speech for people of other languages. Native speakers are offended by too much simplification, if caution is not used.

You are utterly right dear Jerry Decker. Thank you so much for your valuable answer. 

Liqaa 

Of course I  find some difficulties in expressing my ideas from my native language to English language. One of solution which I used is:  firstly I wrote my idea in Arabic language then I try to translate it to English with aid of dictionary and some expert colleague in English language. 

Dear Dr. Raid M. Al-Ani 

In fact we all do but it is good idea to have help from your colleagues .I appreciate your rich answer. Thank you. 

Liqaa 

If you are trained in English medium schools and you have the habit of reading English books; in that case translating ides in the mind may not be difficult.

Yes, I agree with you dear Anirbid that in ESL contexts, the acquiring of the language will be more easier than others and it can help the learners learn to think in the target language. A lot of thanks for your rich comments dear Anirbid Sircar. 

Liqaa 

When I write on RG I always think in English - when thinking suddenly stops or turn into German I need a dictionary... But I am getting better.

But, about a year ago I experienced that I cannot speak English - 'real-time' is too quick for me :(

Best Regards

Andreas

Do you face difficulties in translating your ideas into a language other than your native one?

Initially yes - I faced the difficulty but gradually I'd improved / still improving.  Lesson learnt is don't give up as practice makes perfect.  Practice here includes: humble yourself, willingness to change, think & write differently after receiving comments / critiques from other people.

Yes...me too, as English is my second language which I pick up after lower secondary . It is takes me decade just to have a basic grips of this alien language .

As today , I am still find way to improve my writing.

Cheers !

If I present my research finding in Mandarin , I think I already passed my PhD for decades.

You are right dear Andreas Mampel . When the flow of our ideas cut, we face some difficulties.  Thanks a lot for sharing your valuable experience. 

Liqaa 

Dear Han Ping Fung 

Learning a language is a life long learning process. So, you are right in the process of daily improvement . Thank you so much for your enriching answer. 

Liqaa 

Good luck with improving your language dear Yew Meng Chin . All of us need hard work  to improve our language. 

Liqaa 

This problem was at the beginning of the scientific process, either after I finished my PhD study abroad It became easy to express any idea

It is excellent to be able to express your ideas professionally Dr. Salam. Congratulations dear Dr. and thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Dear Dr Ligaa,

I have been try hard no to think using my original thinking logic which have been embedded with me since I was young , especially sentences's structure .

One thing , old habit die hard , error keep appearing .

Cheers !

You are utterly right dear Yew Meng Chin. It really difficult to exchange habits specifically if one of them has  old roots. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable opinions dear. 

Liqaa 

Dear Dr Liqaa,

The main differences between English and Mandarin was:

1. There is no strict grammar in Mandarin , but English grammar is rigid .

2. The ancient mandarin using short words to represent long sentences with multiple words . But no in English 

3. For Mandarin character you can look at the character you roughly get the meaning of the sentences. But English must remember every characters to get the meaning.

4. It is hard to learn Mandarin, but easy to master . Its easy to learn English , but hard to master .

All these above are my personal experiences and reading from some of the literature.

Regards

Dear Yew Meng Chin 

I see how complex the situation for you but it is clear evidence that you are really strong and smart to overcome this challenge. Thank you so much for sharing your interesting experience. 

Liqaa 

It's also interesting to ask what kinds of difficulties we face when we (try to) "think in" (rather than "translating ideas into") a language other than the L1. 

Dear RG Frnds

In this case, if it is not one's native language.

However, language desinged to share ideas so if one wants, one can learn English very fast and can become proficient in his

desired field.

Best Regards

It depends on the language. In Spanish I have no problem, but I cannot say the same about English. Indeed, even if I can think in the language in which I speak or write, my mental structures work according to the same pattern, which I'm afraid is the one of my native longue.

Best regards

Though not being a native Englisg speaker, I'm contributing to RG and some conferences and alike in English:

while having to rely on some online translator to find some words to express my ideas in a very precise manner, my contributions in English are quite different from those in German. It is not some process of "translation" - I'm expressing my ideas and thoughts easily in both languages. So publications on the same topic differ significantly - depending on the language they were written in.

Dear colleagues Jasna Davidovic, U. Dreher, Daniela Capra, Nishad Nawas, Tomoko Takahashi  thank you so much for sharing your valuable opinions. I highly appreciate them .

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa Habeb, you are very welcome!

Daniela

 Dear Colleague,

I can understand your issue since, teaching English as a foreign language, I struggle quite often with my students to encourage them to express in the target language without using the L1.

As you know, English is an opaque language and rarely (almost never) there is a conrrispondence with our L1.

For this reason, what I suggest tp my students is to make mistakes but to try to use the English language in any case. Since it is impossible to translate from L1 into L2 (in my case from Italian into English) because of the constant differences of the two languages, students have to produce communicate acts and pieces of language without thinking in their L1. Of course, it means that students have to speak in an easy way (like children, it depends of their level).

Over the time, it will be simple to have a good fluency in the oral skills and their vocabulary will increse as well. But, it is fundamental to keep in mind that it will be really difficult (impossible) to express themselves translating exactly from L1 into L2. No way!

After Krushen, I suggest 'The language instinct' by S. Pinker.

Kind regards

Massimiliano

Dear Massimiliano 

I agree with your opinion to use a target language in any way even with making errors. It is really good way to develop students' oral skills. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable experience. 

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa,

Thank you too for your kind feed-back.

Massimiliano

Hi 

I think if we construct our ideas in English, things will go well

Dear Dr Khansaa 

You are absolutely right. That is what we all noticed. Thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa, happy weekend

I have already answered this question and I would like to add here that the Language and its multiplicity are the key to knowledge

Regards

Thank you so much dear Salam Jassim Hmood for your valuable additions. 

Liqaa 

Hi 

It depends on the speakers' communicative abilities . Long period of training on using the foreign language is the best solution as I suggest. 

Dear Khansaa Hassan Al-Bahadli

You are utterly right. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable opinions. 

Liqaa 

Yes, because we are more comfortable in native language as we are exposed to our native language from birth or within the critical period.

Dear Subhash C. Kundu

Thank you so much for sharing your valuable opinions.  I highly appreciate them. 

Liqaa 

Dear Liqaa,

for some reason I understand what you mean. It's quite hard to express concepts/ideas/stories in a language that is our language. Of course, managing a second language like 1language, the step is over.

To do this, we need to study very hard, to live the 2language, read and listen and 'wear' it. With a full immersion into the 2language, we can afford all steps a 2language requests.

Anyway, it is absolutely important to respect the register, English language has different style and register. It could be colloquial, familiar, academic or scientific, it depends on what you're talking/writing about.

This happens especially when you write a paper for a journal, language would be more formal and stilistically different, grammar constructions must be strict and often editor may attack any single aspect (grammar, style, content - sometimes content is valid but not grammar or style, and you have to give another form to it).

Thank you for reading me

Massimiliano

Dear Massimiliano Schirinzi

I like what you state too much and I think to quote it " , we need to study very hard, to live the 2language, read and listen and 'wear' it. With a full immersion into the 2language". Thank you so much for this wonderful addition. 

Liqaa 

It is naturally to face some kind of difficulties in conveying the ideas from theoretical to real side.

Dear Khansaa Hassan Al-Bahadli

You are utterly right dear colleague. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable opinion.

Liqaa 

Though there is some kind of difficulties but still we have the joy of learning during this process.

You are absolutely right dear Dr Khasaa. Learning a foreign language has its flavor though there are many difficulties.  Thank you so much for your answer. 

Liqaa 

Yes, mainly due to mother tongue interference and lack of accurate vocabulary.

H,

It is something normal to face such difficulties. The language we are translating to is not our mother tongue after all.

Thank you so much dear colleagues for your valuable answers.

Liqaa 

Only in the beginning when there is interference between the two languages but later my language improved and the problem decreased.